I was having such difficulty in fitting everything into a trilogy that I had to add another story (Revenge of the Sith was going to be re-written but I got sidetracked and never got back to it). In trying to closely adhere to the original trilogy's style and pacing, it became apparent that Lucas was using the old 1950's matinee style of telling this story. Which consisted of a lot of "wipe" transitions and a story line that was continuously forward moving. There are no flashbacks, jump ahead, narration, exposition or any other devices normally used today to tell a story. The only thing close that could fill in details would be the opening crawl and once that's over its off to the races. I found it a bit confining way to tell a story personally but that's how the saga goes. Telling the story in a different way just isn't "Star Wars".

have any of you guys had issues in trying to tell a Star Wars story while staying within the structure of how the OT stories were done??

Lucas was using the post movies 633 squadron and The Dam Busters for his most direct inspiration for A New Hope. Since you can probably find both of them on youtube in some kind of quality, and lots of peoples cutting together of those movies footage with the action from A new Hope, that might be something to look at.

"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956